Oh, Conventions, how the anticipation grows as you slowly approach that fateful day were you are reunited with your Trek family.  There's nothing quite like being a group of like-minded people who are all gathered together for one common cause.  Especially if that cause is Star Trek.

Seeing your favorite cast members is likened to a long lost friend that shows up on your doorstep.  "Oh Bill, it's been so long...Katie, dear, how have you been?" After the warm embraces, what's the most logical thing for you to do?  Commemorate the reunion with a snapshot, of course. If you could just get proof that you stood next William Shatner or Kate Mulgrew you could look at the photo months, maybe even years later, and it would bring back that rush of excitement you felt when the bulbs flashed.  Wait..how much does a photo op ticket cost? Eighty dollars? Eighty bucks just to stand next to an aging actor?  Well...I guess it's worth it, right?  Or, is it?

With Dragon-Con approaching and the release of the photo-op price list, it begs the question; How much is really too much for a photo-op?  Thanks to reader Jay S., who brought the price list to our attention today via twitter, we ponder this highly theoretical question.

Looking through the list, it seems pretty on-par with other conventions.  William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are their usual $80 a piece.  Or, have a combined photo with both TOS-ers for $160.  Two for the price of two, what a deal!    Okay, okay, we see Kate Mulgrew for $60 and a cadre of Enterprise cast members for $30 each.  Oh, but just a minute, Patrick Stewart is at the show, you say?  That's rare!  We HAVE to get a photo with him. I can just see myself frantically digging out my wallet to fork over any amount...no matter the cost...ummm...wait...how much?  That's right Trek fans.  You can have your picture taken standing next to our lovable Captain Jean-Luc Picard...it'll just cost you a paultry $200.  Errrrrruuuppppp - record needle screaches across the vinyl. Yup, you heard me right, TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS. Now, quiet down, I know there are those fans out there giving us reasons why this is worth it. Sure the photo-op is limited to just 200 fans.  Okay, we get 2 prints and a digital copy.  Would it be rare to have your photo with Jean-Luc? Indeed.  But...do we think that this is price gouging devoted fans at warp speed?  Absolutely!  Now, I don't want to pass any judgment on who's decision it was to charge that sizable fee, Mr. Stewart's or Dragon-Con's. But, come on, you can have a Kate Mulgrew, a William Shatner, a John Billingsly, and even a Dwight Schultz thrown in, all for the exact same price.

So maybe you're a huge Patrick Stewart fan and that seems like a reasonable price given the rarity. To us, it seems like one more way to fleece fans of their hard earned dough.  I mean, come on, I only get to see Santa once a year, and he lets me sit on his lap...for free!  In the space aged future there may be no need for money, but for you and me, the present runs on cold hard cash.

Thoughts?  Comments?

Check out the list of available Dragon-Con photo ops here.

Also, check out our previous coverage of all Trek actor attendees here.

** UPDATE ** This article was originally titled "How much is too much? A fans perspective on convention pricing".  It's been brought to our attention that our article is similar in title and topic to another article written in July.  We're glad to see other like-minded fans with outrage concerning convention price gouging.  While we hadn't seen the article until the author contacted us, we decided to be neighborly and change the title of our article.  Hopefully this limits confusion and let's both articles stand on their own merits.  You can view the other article here.

Image credit Trekcore.com